Latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Midlands

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Authorities say a long-haul trucker is responsible for at least three slayings and may have committed more in other states.

Investigators say John Boyer hated women and especially despised prostitutes. He's pleaded guilty to killing one reputed prostitute in North Carolina and is charged in the killings of two others -- one in Tennessee and one in South Carolina. The bodies of all three were dumped near interstates.

The similarities of the cases, and the apparent lack of remorse from Boyer, have the police officers who investigated those killings encouraging their colleagues who work near major highways in the Southeast to check their unsolved homicide files and missing person cases.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)